Saracens on the brink of automatic relegation as the club holds crisis meetings
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Saracens players have reportedly been called into a crisis meeting on Friday morning amid reports that the club are on the verge of automatic relegation according to multiple reports.
Saracens have already been docked 35 points for exceeding the salary cap but have been given until Monday to open up their books to an independent audit or they will be automatically relegated from the Premiership at the end of the season.
Executives from the Premiership clubs met on Tuesday where the reigning domestic champions are understood to have been issued with an ultimatum to prove their compliance with the salary cap.
Saracens’ newly appointed CEO, Edward Griffiths, has told players that job and salary cuts were imminent at the club in order to line completely with the salary cap for the 2019/20 season.
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However, the club has struggled to offload salaries and are to set to come in over this season’s salary cap despite their efforts. No players have officially been released from the club but likes of Richard Wigglesworth, George Kruis, Alex Lozowski and Michael Rhodes could all depart.
Premiership CEO Darren Childs is eager to send a message to clubs who might consider flaunting the cap in future.
Speaking earlier this month to BBC Sport, he said: “It is absolutely a possibility that for serious breaches in the future it could include things like relegation and withdrawal of titles and other things that currently the regulations don’t allow us to do.”
“We have to make sure that we don’t do this again or end up in this position again whether it’s through ambiguity or whether it has been deliberate.”
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Read more on Saracens' situation on Telegraph.co.uk, Express.co.uk, BBC, DailyMail and RugbyPass
